EPA
Seeks Largest Ever Civil Penalty for Pesticide Violations by RI Company
(from March 26, 2003)

The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency announced on March 12 that it is proposing a $1 million
penalty against the American Biophysics Corp. (ABC) in East Greenwich,
R.I. for failing to properly register a mosquito attractant that was
a part of a pesticide product line the company was selling worldwide
last year. The civil penalty is the largest ever proposed in New England
for pesticide violations. The fine comes at somewhat of a shock to many
environmentalists and public health advocates because the product, "Mosquito
Magnet," is considered a safer alternative to traditional mosquito
spray programs.

The EPA complaint
charges the company with nearly 200 counts of selling and distributing
an insect attractant, used in its "Mosquito Magnet" insect-control
equipment, without securing the required EPA registration number and
without using EPA-approved labeling. According to the EPA press release,
the insect attractant contained octenol, which can be toxic to humans.
Under federal law, the attractant is defined as a pesticide and therefore
must be registered by EPA before it can be sold or distributed in the
United States.

The "Mosquito
Magnet," a machine much like a gas grill, burns propane gas that
sends out a plume of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide attracts mosquitoes,
which are then sucked in and killed. One magnet can control adult mosquitoes
over an acre of land, though different levels of success have been reported.
According to ABC, when the carbon dioxide is combined with an additional
attractant, octenol, is irresistible to female mosquitoes (the ones
that bite), no-see-ums, biting midges, black flies, and sandflies. Information
on Octenol (1-octen-3-ol), provided on the ABC website, states that
it "is a naturally occurring by-product that comes from plants
and some animals, (pheromone and kairomone) such as oxen and cows, that
ingest large amounts of vegetable matter."

The complaint, filed
March 10, alleges that ABC produced and sold the attractant from March
2002 to July 2002 without having a valid registration. It also alleges
nearly 100 instances where the company mislabeled the "Mosquito
Magnet" products by including false or misleading information on
the labeling. For example, in many instances labels stated that the
pesticide product was "Safe - Not A Pesticide" or was "Environmentally
Friendly." Many labels also were marked with an EPA registration
number when no such number had been issued by EPA.

"The pesticide
registration process is intended to ensure that before a product is
sold publicly, the pesticide is found by EPA to be effective and when
used in strict compliance with the label directions does not present
any unreasonable risks," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator
of EPA's New England Office. "It is unfortunate that this company
misled the public by ignoring our nation's pesticide regulations."

Upon discovering
the illegal pesticide sales, on July 10, 2002, EPA issued a stop-sale
order requiring ABC to cease further sale or distribution of the unregistered
and misbranded pesticide products. On July 26, 2002, EPA Headquarters
in Washington approved ABC's application to register its octenol and,
thereafter, ABC, with proper labeling, resumed the sale of these products.